Our friends at APA (American Photographic Artists) are proud to announce the winners of the 2020 APA Awards. View the gallery of impressive Award winning images on their website, or here. Congrats to the winners!
2020 APA Awards Winners Announced
Category Archives: 2. From the Newsstand
A guided tour of what SYNC’s clients are putting on the Newsstands these days.
Deadline Extended: 2020 APA Awards
The American Photographic Artists (APA) organization have extended their submission deadline for the 2020 APA Awards contest to Tuesday, July 28th.
From the APA website:
“APA Awards Call for Entries is now open!
Our annual competition is open to all photographers at every level, worldwide — everyone from emerging photographers to established professionals.
Our Judges will select 43 APA Award Winners this year.
APA members save on each entry. APA Leader level members save over 35% on each image.
Now is a great time to join APA : enter enough images and your first year of membership can be free.“
APA Announces 2018 Award Winners
American Photographic Artists announces their 2018 Award Winners! On behalf of the whole SYNC team, we congratulate these incredible artists on their well-deserved wins. Check out the entire gallery HERE on the APA website and see the first place winners in the gallery below. To navigate, click the left/right arrows. Clicking on the images will bring you to the artist’s website.
Snowfall Season 2: Matthias Clamer
On July 19th, the premiere of the 2nd season of Snowfall aired on FX. If you live in Los Angeles, you have probably seen one of the many incredible billboards and gorgeous posters around the city. There was even a pop-up Summer Kickback event for the premiere on La Cienega Boulevard which featured an entire building front recreated in the color scheme of the marketing!
These dramatic and beautiful images were created by mega-talented SYNC friend and longtime client, Matthias Clamer and his incredible team. Check out the billboards and Matthias’ gorgeous work below.
Jim Wright Photographs Melissa McCarthy for AARP
Melissa McCarthy is an inspiration to women and aspiring female comedians and actors. Her work is simultaneously hilarious and touching and SYNC client and longtime friend Jim Wright has captured her energy and spirit perfectly for AARP magazine. Photographed together with her Mother Sandy, Jim’s images and the corresponding article by David Hochman will hit you right in the feels. Read more about how Jim pulled off this shoot below!
Q&A with Jim Wright!
What is your favorite piece of gear and/or grip for cover shoots/editorials?
Elinchrom Octas, Elinchrom Rotolux Deep, Photek Medium Umbrellas, Profo Packs and Heads.
I often go to Sync for big and smaller jobs because the gear is always functional, clean and reliable.
Were there any challenges you encountered on set?
Time. With celebrities it is always a challenge. But, on this particular day Melissa was also doing the “Ellen Show” so we had limited amount of time to get all of the desired setups. Another big challenge is being able to navigate a large crew of of 25-30 people consisting of camera assistants, art department, glam squad, publicists, managers, editors and bts crew and getting them to focus on the job at hand. Taking in everyone’s input while still getting the images that I want as a photographer.
Your backdrops are always perfect! Is that something that you decide well in advance? What do you take into account when choosing colors/textures?
I always try to choose backdrops that go with the theme or context of the shoot. For this shoot we were going for a very poetic, romantic feel; almost painterly. Jesse Nemeth,my “go to set designer”, custom made the canvas backdrops for the shoot which I think really set the tone. Great job Jesse!
Best, Jim
Additional CREDITS:
Location: Goya Studios
Hair: Richard Marin
Makeup: Sabrina Bedrandi
Wardrobe/Styling: Allyson Fanger
Seamstress: Daniela Kurrle
Patrick Fraser shoots Dave Franco for Vanity Fair
Check out these gorgeous photographs from SYNC friend and client, Patrick Fraser! Patrick’s photos of Dave Franco accompany a story by Julie Miller recently published in Vanity Fair. The story revolves around Dave’s role in a film called “The Disaster Artist”, directed by and also starring, his brother James Franco. The movie focuses on the making of the now cult classic “The Room” created by Tommy Wiseau. Dave plays Tommy’s real life friend and straight man, Greg Sesteros. The story can be read here and be sure to see more of Patrick’s awesome work on his website here. We are absolutely so grateful to have amazing clients like Patrick and we love to see what magic they make using SYNC gear!
Photographs by Patrick Fraser
Grooming by Sonia Lee for Exclusive Artists (Using Chanel Les Beiges)
Story by Julie Miller
Bachelorettes, Babies and…SYNC?!
Those words together might seem a strange fit, but context is everything! What’s the context? Another beautiful SYNC job hit newsstands last week! Photographed by Jana Cruder, bachelorettes (from various seasons of the enormously popular show) and their happy, healthy babies graced the cover of People Magazine’s May Issue.
Photographer Jana Cruder tells us a little bit about the shoot:
“I ended up building two sets and shot multiple cover options back to back. We also staged and lit two additional sets for inside spread options and singles.
It was a really dynamic set for me to navigate (especially with 6 mothers/babies, their dads, sitters and publicists as well as a large glam team all on location). I felt completely looked after by SYNC and I knew that T.J.’s team and my crew would go the extra mile to ensure that we had anything and everything we needed. They always come through and I love SYNC!
Overall this was a fun, action packed day that went off with out a hitch and the client and I are ecstatic over the shots!”
To give People and Jana exactly what they needed to make this shoot go smoothly, SYNC provided a fully loaded sprinter, production supplies and 2 of our Key Assistants. A super high energy crew, wonderful talent and a great location set the scene for this beautiful editorial. The SYNC team is so grateful to have clients like People Magazine and Jana Cruder. Their knowledge and experience combined with our gear make magic time and time again!
*All photos used are Property of People Magazine/Jana Cruder*
Shaun Fenn, Westin Hotels: Let’s Rise!
They say it takes a village… and in the world of commercial photography the village surrounding Shaun Fenn includes some of the best in the business. From the focused and fantastic production stylings of Paige Dorian, to the 24/7 resource wonderland that is SYNC, Shaun’s clients at Westin Hotels and Resorts and Venables Bell and Partners had a front row seat to how great advertising images are created.
Transforming locations and creating a mood that matches what the agency and client have established is what Shaun and his team does best. During the Redondo Beach location day, the challenges of cloudy weather and less than ideal location foreground turned out to be the inspiration for what happened next.
It started by shooting plates at an alternate location that had the wooden pier foreground that the client was after. Shaun used a Canon 5DS R with a panoramic head to create a precisely stitched pano that aligned the wooden planks for the image foreground. Then, as the weather took a turn for the worst, Shaun and Co were forced to find a new location to shoot, they were able to find a new place on www.spmtrianglerentals.com . came up with a lighting solution that involved a last minute trip to SYNC, 40 ft. of speedrail, Profoto head extensions and one carefully placed strobe head.
The final image below illustrates how all the pieces came together…
Jon Miller, SYNC and Hive Lighting test the new Wasp 100-C!
Academy Award® nominated Hive Lighting’s new 100-Watt LED light with convenient controls and limitless colors for any budget, anywhere. On KICKSTARTER NOW!
Jon Miller is one of the owners of Hive Lighting and when he isn’t developing and testing new lighting products, he also works on set as a cinematographer, gaffer and photo assistant.
“I like to take any opportunity I can to work with lights out in the field” says Miller. “I first became familiar with SYNC when I was looking for a photo house with really deep resources for grip gear and light modifiers. I like to bring equipment to the photo world from my film and video background and this is why I knew the SYNC team would be perfect for this shoot. It was great working with them again.”
Hive Lighting has developed a brand new LED light the Wasp 100-C as a hybrid for both the photo and video world. Jon Miller and his team turned to SYNC rentals to provide the gear for producing the promotional video.
The Wasp 100-C is designed to work with both Chimera and all ProFoto accessories and Hive used SYNC for the gear to test and demonstrate when producing this video for their current Kickstarter campaign.
Mark Katzman Rocks Humana
Mark Katzman and SYNC go way back. Before SYNC, actually. And along that journey, the one element that has always resonated is how Mark connects with people. His crew, his clients, the talent and most of all, his viewing audience. That’s what keeps him in such high demand and what makes it such a pleasure to work with Mark on these projects.
This recent Humana job was no exception. Produced by Connie Conway Productions, this job traversed the greater Los Angeles area and produced a touching, heartfelt slice of real life that embodies what Humana is all about.
